Small Fry
by Enide Dear
Summary: Raph's refusal to overcome his own fears puts Mikey's life in grave danger. The fact that something huge and lethal is stalking the sewers doesn't help. Rated for some gore and very mild tcest.


"You know, I'm not an expert on romantic relationships or anything," looking up from the whateveritwas he was welding, Donatello glanced at Raphael. "But I do think there are more mature ways of getting Mikey's attention than constantly plummeting him to the ground."

"What?!"Raph spun on his heel, part angry and part stunned. "What are you implying?"

"Oh, come on Ralph." Leo sighed without even looking away from the TV. "It is obvious you like him. You are always finding reasons to touch him. You just don't know how to deal with it so you are acting like an eight year old boy in a schoolyard. If Mikey had pigtails, you'd be pulling them."

For a few seconds Raphael could just stare, slack jawed and with hands quivering over his sais. But a few tendrils of terror rose in him when he realized his fellow turtles were not teasing him. They were in fact dead serious.

He couldn't help it; he burst out laughing.

"Like him?! Like Mikey? Romantically?! Are you both insane? He is…he's a turtle!"

"Well, so are you." Donatello pointed out with calm logic. "It stands to reason that turtles would be attracted to turtles. If anything, me and Leo are the abnormal ones, feeling attracted to humans."

"You are abnormal alright! Mikey is like, the worse turtle! I mean, he's the worse fighter of us –" Starting to feel cornered by the knowing looks, Ralph lashed out.

"He is not. He is fast and unpredictable." Leo cut in. "Unlike you, who always go for the face."

"Because it always works! And he's a moron! He can barely keep one thought in his head at a time!" What the shell was wrong with Leo and Donnie? They knew what he said was true!

"Pot, kettle," Donatello muttered over his machine.

"And he smells! And he's got the worse ideas in the world! Befriending foot soldiers who betrayed us– " Why were they doing this? He didn't like Mikey!

Leo raised a hand. "Done that."

"Punching random buttons on computers to see what happens – " He'd rather kiss Spike than Mikey!

"Guilty,"Donny waved his arm.

"Setting of alarms – " Or, you know, Fishface!

"You!" Both turned to point at him.

"Alright! But he's the only one who does all those things and more in one day! He…he is a complete bonehead! You know that! No one wants him on their team! It's like babysitting a puppy with ADHD! If he jumped in the sewer pit, we'd be a better team! And his food is awful! I mean, I mean…algae and worms? What kind of idiot even figures that out?!"

"I thought you liked my cooking." A small voice from behind cut through the outburst.

With a chill of utter dread all three turned around.

Mikey stood in the doorway, holding a huge pot of steaming algea, his apron stained with worms, his shoulders slumped. The look on his face was one of heartbroken despair.

"How….long have you been standing there?" Leo asked, but Mikey didn't seem to even hear him.

"Mikey, I'm sorry I didn't mean…" But it was too late. Before Ralph had even time to move, Mikey dropped to pot and rushed out the lair, grabbing his skateboard to speed away. The apron came sailing in like a stained flag of surrender.

"Now look what you make me do! Mikey, come back!" Horrified, Raphael ran after him.

Leo and Donny exchanged a look.

"How is this our fault again?" Leo sighed.

"I'm not sure." Donny glanced at the pot of crawling algae. "So, we're ordering pizza tonight?"

"Oh yes."

Leo was right about the unpredictable thing alright, Ralph seethed as he hurried down the sewers, but only that part! If Donny was gone, you could bet he was either in his workshop or at April's. If Leo was gone, he was either in the training room or upside kicking foot ass. But Mikey didn't have enough attention span to develop habits and he could be anywhere. He was probably still on the move, and he was fast. With a head start and no lead, Raphael really had no chance of keeping up with him. That was the problem with Mikey right there; 99 times out of 100 his ideas were pure idiocy and then the hundredth it was genius. Who had the patience to wait around for that!?

Damn it! He punched a sai against the wall hard enough to strike sparks, letting anger engulf shame and any other threatening feelings. He didn't like Mikey, what kind of insinuation was that?! Alright, so he didn't hate him, of course not. Mikey just annoyed the green out of him. He always got into trouble. He never learned! He kept being naively optimistic and trusting no matter what the world- or his brothers - threw at him. It seemed nothing could take down that sunny smile for long….except that he, Ralph, had just done so, hadn't he? Mikey had looked so sad….it was like a cut to the heart. No one should make Mikey look like that! If it had been any of the random bad guys who'd done it, Ralph would have cut him to shreds. And helped carrying him out of there. And tried to cheer him up as best as he could, although he wasn't very good at it. Because Mikey was his punch bag and no one got to hurt him and touch him but Ralph and….

"Ah, shell." With a sigh Ralph leaned against the sewer wall. "I do…like him."

Never mind all these stupid emotions, he had to find Mikey now before he got into trouble. But where was he? Mikey might be unpredictable but he didn't act so much as react. He tended to just subconsciously hang on to whatever had been said a moment before…

Ralph started running, flat out as fast as he could. He knew were Mikey was and he could only hope he wasn't too late.

Being glum sucked. He didn't know why Ralph insisted on being so all the time. Kicking his heels against the pit wall, Mikey heaved a huge sigh. He really had thought Ralph liked him. Yeah, so Raph insulted him all the time. And, you know, hurt him. But he really did want his attention, even if he was angry, and he did his best to cheer Raph up, although most of the time it just pissed the other turtle off. But still, Mikey'd hoped there was something there.

Apparently he was wrong again. It seemed he always was. It was probably why no one wanted him around. Maybe the team would be better off without him.

Mikey stared off into the fifty meter abyss he was dangling his feet over. It felt like the abyss stared back.

"Oh Gods Mikey, don't jump don't jump don't jump, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…." Ralph slid into the pit section, avoiding the fifty meter drop by an inch as he panicking scanned the room. Mickey wasn't here, there were no signs that he had been….steeling himself, Raphael looked down the pit.

Something green and broken lay at the bottom in a spreading pool of blood.

Ralph froze. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. Seconds past as blood pumped quickly out of Mikey's twisted body.

No! No! He couldn't freeze now! With a mind that felt blank and fingers that felt numb he quickly got out a hook and line and slid down to the bottom of the pit, landing just at the smaller turtle's feet.

"Mickey?! Mickey!" No answer. No movement except the running blood. He fell to his knees even as panic tried to freeze him again; both Mickey's legs and one of his arms were twisted in impossible ways. The shell looked cracked in places. One eye was open and staring at nothing.

Ralph panicked.

"Wake up! Wake up! Nooooo!" He grabbed a shoulder and shook it but that only made the blood run faster; freaked out he scuffled back. Alright, the bleeding. He could stop that. Quickly he removed his bandana and kneepaddings and used them as tourniquets, then did the same with Mickey's. The bleeding slowed. Alright, that was good. That was something. Now he had to get Mickey home. Donny would know what to do. Or Splinter.

Someone.

Because if Mikey was dead he didn't think he could live anymore.

"You think they'll kiss and make up?" Donnie bit into the next piece of pizza.

"Maybe,"Leo shrugged, sucking cheese from his fingers. "As long as Mikey doesn't annoy Raph again and Raph doesn't hurt him too bad."

A scuffle by the lair entrance made them both look up. Pizza slices fell unnoticed from suddenly cold fingers as they stared in dread.

Raphael stood cradling the sad, broken remains of Michelangelo's body to his chest, green eyes wide with horror and body stained with the smaller turtle's blood. Raphael's eyes were lost and bewildered and horrified.

"Help him,"he rasped, holding out his brother's unmoving body like a sacrifice. "I think I killed him."

"What the shell have you done, Raph?!" Leo felt his fingers clenching and unclenching around the sword handles, but he couldn't remember drawing them. "What have you done?!"

"Be quiet! It is hard enough trying to hear heartbeats through a plastron! Especially with no outer ear!" Pressing his head against Mikey's chest, Donnie desperately tried to hear anything, but it was almost impossible with Leo yelling and Ralph rocking back and forth on the floor, his arms around his legs. Master Splinter was changing all the bandages before Raph's makeshift tourniquets cost Mikey his limbs, if he still lived.

"I killed him. I killed him. I said he could jump in the sewer pit. And he did. He did!"Without his bandana on, Ralph looked so small and vulnerable but Leo was in no mood to be forgiving. He lifted his sword and shoved it at Mikey's face, causing Donnie to jump back with a yelp.

"No!"Anguish made Raph slow, but he caught Leo's wrist, twisting the sword aside. But not before a faint fog appeared on the sword blade. Leo slumped down with relief.

"He's breathing. He's still alive then. No thanks to you!" He shoved Raphael aside.

"Calm down both of you." A strong, warm hairy hand on each of their shoulders pushed the antagonists apart. "Michelangelo is not stupid, nor does he jump of cliffs simply because someone tells him to." Very gently, Splinter leaned Mikey's cracked shell up and pointed at two burn marks almost dead center on it."Someone pushed him."

"Pushed him? I'll kill them!" Fear, relief, fury – it all warred inside Raph but he focused on the anger. Anger could help. Everything else was just in the way.

Splinter grabbed his wrist and easily held him back before he could rush out of the lair.

"Donatello, what is your brother's status?"

"I don't know! We've stopped the bleeding and he's breathing, but he's not waking up and I don't know if he has any internal injuries. I could construct an x-ray machine, but that would take weeks….." he gulped as he saw Raph's face"….days?" A growl from the bigger turtle made him blink. "Hours?"

"See that it does. And I know how to wake him up!" Raph grabbed the half-eaten pizza carton and waved it under Mikey's nose. "Wakey, wakey Mikey!"

No response. Raph held the pizza closer.

"Wake up, moron!"

Mikey didn't move.

"Wake up I said!" He pressed the box closer in despair until Leo grabbed his arm and pushed him back.

"It is not working and you suffocating him with peperoni is not helping!"

"Fine!" he threw the box across the lair. "Then I'll go out and find whoever did this to Mikey and cut them to pieces!"

"Raphael."Splinter's voice was so soft. "Michelangelo might be dying. If you storm of now, you may never get another chance to speak to him. Do you really want things between you unsaid?"

"I…but…."He looked at the broken body and anger washed away from him, despite all he did to hold on to it. And in its wake came helplessness, despair and, deep down inside, other emotions, warmer emotions.

He hated emotions. He hated the way his eyes misted over and there were no bandana to catch the tears and hide them.

Splinter nodded.

"Donatello, you start working on the x-ray machine. Leonardo, you go see if you can find any trace of who did this to your brother. And Raphael….you wait and watch."

With Leo gone, Donnie busy and Master Splinter meditating, there were nothing for Raph to do but wait and fret. He paced the floor back and forth, keeping a keen eye on Mikey's plastron to make sure his brother kept breathing. Mikey had always been the smallest one of them, but now, hurt and bandaged and unmoving, he looked even smaller. Vulnerable. And someone had taken advantage of that and hurt him.

Raph felt like killing something. This was what he'd always warned them would happen! This was why he trained, constantly! They couldn't afford to be weak! Fear and anger, that's what kept you alive, not trust and happiness!

He sank to his knees by the couch, putting an arm very, very carefully around Mikey's chest and leaned his forehead against Mikey's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry I drove you off. I'm so sorry, Mikey. I'm...so sorry." he took a deep breath. "Wait here. I'll go yell at Donnit to get that machine ready. I'll take care of you, I promise." He really shouldn't yell at Donatello when the high strung nerd was caught up in one of his inventions - it only made Donnie angry and distracted - but he couldn't stay still any longer. It felt like his mind - his body - his heart - might break if he did.

Too caught up in turmoil, Raph didn't noticed the huge bulk waiting patiently beneath the water entrance as he hurried for the lab.

"Stop yelling at me! I am working as fast as I can!" Donnie was about to throw something heavy and fragile at his nervous brothers when the t-phone suddenly rang. Raph threw himself over it before Donnie had a chance to react.

"Who did it, Leo?" he growled into the phone. "Foot Soldiers? Kraang?" His voice lowered even more in hatred. "Karai?!"

"If you are quiet for a second, I might have time to answer." Leo snarled back, equally impatient. "I'm at the sewer pit. There's not much trace here but there are heavy claw marks on the ground and - " he stopped to measure "- at about a meter over my head as well. Wait, there's something here. A...scale?"

"Who do we know that's huge with heavy claws and scales?" Donnie mused, but for once Raph was ahead of his genious brother. He tossed the phone away and ran for Mikey, sais drawn. "I mean, there is one, but I thought he was Mikey's friend."

"Get away from him!" With a roar, Raph tackled the huge form away from where it had been leaning over Mikey's unmoving form. "You are not touching him again!"  
Leatherhead hissed and spun to his feet, faster than his bulk should have allowed him to. Something green and wriggly moved in his powerful jaws and for a few seconds all went black with rage in Raph's head.

"He's not even dead! You are eating him and he's not even dead!" Roaring with rage and hideous fear, Raph threw himself at the mutant, but Leatherhead just spun and threw him like a ragdoll.

"Stupid turtle," he hissed. "I would never hurt the first living person to befriend me."  
Raph wasn't listening. Green goo - turtle blood? mangled flesh? - dripped down Leatherhead's jaws. And he'd been at the sewer pit. It was all Raph needed.

"You stay away from him! Or I kill you!" His breathing came so fast, his mind was totally overridden by emotions. "I love him!" He started circling his opponent, looking for an opening.

A hissing laughter of contempt broke through Leatherhead's jaws.

"Love him? You dont even like him. You said so yourself. Besides, you have no appreciation for the strength of his soul or his dedication to his friends! He is stronger and braver in the face of the unknown than you will ever be!" They went down in a pile of hard punching bodies until Leatherhead got in a punch that threw Raph across the lair. "All you can do is fight! All you don't understand, you fear! You are afraid of anything new, from musical machines to food or people! You!" he punched, and Raph jumped out of the way. "Are!" A kick, and Raph used the momentum to gain height. "A coward!" Raph landed on his head, bearing him down with his hands over Leahterhead's eyes. "You don't deserve him! You dont' even like his cooking!"

And with that, Leatherhead grabbed the huge pot of steaming green algea and wriggling worms that Mikey had dropped so much earlier it felt like another life, and slammed it straight into Raph's face. Green goo and wriggling worms - the same kind that slithered from leatherhead's maws, ran down Raph as he dazed and confused tried to sit up.

"I didn't hurt your brother. And I never will. Unlike you. He'd be safer living with me." Leaning over him, Leatherhead hissed. "I tried to save him. I was too late. I pray -" he spun around and grabbed Donatello who had been trying to sneak up on him - "you are not."

"My face!" Donnie screamed, trying not to drop his x-ray machine.

"Let him go!" Raph tried to come to his feet, wobbly after the punch and even more wobbly after the words that were slowly filtering into his brain, each carrying a punch as bad as any claw or scaled tail.

"Uhhhhh..." a small sound by the couch made them all freeze. "Rrrrrrrraaaph?"

It took Raphael less than a second to cover the distance to the couch were Mikey's dimmed, confused eyes looked up on him.

"Oh gods, Mikey, you're alive, you're not dead, I love you, don't go off living with that crocodile!" Hugging his brother so hard he probably bruised him all over, Raph held on to his neck.

"Gahhhh..." Mikey tried to breah until Donnie pried Raph away. "Crocodile...?" He mumbled confused.

"Yeah, Leatherhead said..." Raph turned around, but the lair was empty. Only a few small rings on the water revealed that Leatherhead had ever been there. "Never mind." He ended lamely, a guilty sense of gratitude towards the mutant squirming in his chest.

"A few broken bones, no internal damages." Donnie slowly moved the x-ray machine along his brother's body. "Cracked shell, concussion. That's it. He'll be fine, but it will take months."

"It's alright." Sitting down by the couch, Raph pulled the blanket up over Mikey's body and tugged it in. "I'll take care of him."

"Hey look, Leo's called us...like a million times." Frowning, Donnie took up the t-phone. "Oh hi Leo, we've had a bit of a situation..."

"Don't you ever answer? Is Mikey alright? I found something else at the sewer pit. Mutated plant parts. Snakeweed was here as well."

"Oh great. I'll tell Raph..." Donnie cast a glance at the tender scene; Raph tucking in Mikey, talking quietly to him. The volatile brother looked more at peace than he ever had. "You know what. Let's deal with him some other time."

Epilogue:  
The wooden stick was almost at his face and despite himself, Raph kept retreating. He just was no match to Mikey when he was in this mood and soon the smaller turtle would have him cornered and defeated. He had no way of fighting back, no chance of winning, not when Mikey had poured all his skill into this…..and the bandages and the puppy eyes didn't help either.

"Eat it!"The content of the wooden spoon went *glop* in a truly disgusting way as Mikey waved it at his older brother. It smelled worse than the sewers. It *looked* worse than the sewers! And yet he had to…the spoon was shoved into his mouth.

"Mmmm, tasty," he managed to croak , fighting to keep it down.

"Aw, I knew you liked my cooking!" Beaming withjoy under his various bandages, Mikey jumped forward to kiss him and landed badly on his broken ankle. "Ow!"

"Are you alright? You shouldn't even be up!" Annoyed and fearfully concerned Raph helped him back to the couch. "You just lay there and take it easy. I'll fetch some pizza for you. Anshovis and jelly beans, right?"

Mikey sank back in the couch, looking pleased with himself as Raphael hurried out the sewers. Leo shook his head.

"Who would have known. It's Mikey who wears the pants in that relationship."  
"Not so strange," Donnie was pouring over his mechanical work. "You know Mikey can talk anyone into pretty much anything. And besides, Raphael is a protector. All you really have to do is bat your eyes at him and he'll do anything for you. He is the most easily manipulated turtle I know."

Leo blinked.

"Oh, really? And you know this, how?"

Donnie had the decency to blush.


End file.
